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The hope inside WWE is that Rhea Ripley will be back in time for the Royal Rumble. That comes from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and it stretches a timeline that had previously been pointed at the fall. Ripley has not wrestled since June 3, a house show trios match on WWE’s European tour, after suffering a tear in her meniscus. She has since undergone knee surgery, posting on X that 14 years of sports and pro wrestling had caught up with her and that the operation was needed. She remains the WWE Women’s Champion. With no clear return date, WWE crowned an interim champion at SummerSlam, where Chelsea Green won a ladder match in Minneapolis to take the placeholder title. Several plans had to be reworked around the injury, including Tiffany Stratton’s spot on the card. Bryan Alvarez has since noted there are rumblings that Ripley could end up vacating the championship outright. A Royal Rumble return would put Ripley back in January, roughly seven months after her last match. Rhea Ripley Cannot Hold A Belt She Cannot Defend The interim title was always a temporary fix, and a January return turns it into a structural problem. WWE now has two women who can credibly call themselves champion, one of whom has not been on television in two months and will not be for another five. That is not a story. It is an asterisk sitting on top of the division every week. Stripping her is the cleaner outcome even though it feels harsh. Green won a ladder match in front of a stadium crowd that wanted her to win it, and asking her to carry an interim designation into 2027 undercuts the biggest night of her career for the sake of a technicality. Ripley does not need the belt to matter. She has never needed the belt to matter. Coming back in October to satisfy a booking plan and reinjuring it in November would cost WWE far more than waiting does. If the Rumble is the target, the Rumble is also a genuinely good stage to come back on, because there is no better way to reintroduce someone than dropping her into a match with thirty other people and letting the building tell you what it thinks. Tap Here To Add Sportsnaut As A Trusted Source on Google